Rep. Joaquín Castro blasts Laredo’s ‘bizarre’ welcome for Trump

Congressman Joaquín Castro is speaking out against fellow Texas leaders for embracing Donald Trump’s Thursday visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.

In a tweet to Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz, Castro wrote that Trump exploited the city’s government for his own image, and added that the city’s reception of Trump was “embarrassing for South Texans and Hispanics.”

.@MayorPeteSaenz Donald Trump just used you and the other councilmembers to make him look good. Embarrassing for South Texas and Hispanics.

Castro doubled down on his criticism on msnbc Friday. “They rolled out the red carpet for Donald Trump, someone who’s made just hateful comments about Mexican immigrants,” Castro said on Andrea Mitchell Reports. “To treat him like an officeholder or like he’s President of the United States or even the nominee already, I thought it was just bizarre, considering what he said.”

In Trump’s presidential campaign launch speech in June, the real estate mogul and reality television star said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems.”

On Friday on Morning Joe, Trump addressed the controversy around his own remarks about immigration and touched on the possibility of a system that would allow undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. based on their contributions.

Castro said Trump’s recognition that deportation for millions of undocumented people was not a solution. “I’m glad that he seems to be a little more reasonable than he was before,” he said, “but still: all of his comments have just made a serious conversation on immigration and dealing with it in Congress much tougher now.”